10 and 12 Meter Verticals

Whilst having a sort out I came across some old mobile whips that I had stashed away. I found my old 9 foot stainless 1/4 wave 10M whip, a base loaded 10M whip as well as a 6M whip and a 2M whip. After playing around with the various 5/8 threaded antennas I decided to erect one antenna with radials for 10M and a second for 12M by joining two antennas (6M & 2M) together.
Here is the 10M whip with radials.

Here is the 6M joined with the 2M whip which is perfectly resonant on 12M

I have been hearing some nice signals on both bands earlier today whilst using the FT-857 to listen on 12M as the FT-847 was listening on 10M. I will be TXing on both bands soon with more to come on the results of each antenna.

The new mono band verticals join the rest of my HF antennas which still comprise of a home made delta loop for 80M, another home made delta loop for 20M, and one I bought which is the Hustler 6BTV.

On The Bright Side

After a week of holidaying at home in the glorious sunshine, our last day was spent watching the much needed rain falling hard up here on the moor top. During our travels I had managed to pick up some replacement 12V Lilliput LES lamps for my "in darkness" favourite old HF radio, the Yaesu FT-767GX.

Once I removed the screws I managed to get the iron in and replace a couple of rather short wires that were soldered to the lamp housing close to the meter. The job was tight for space (for a welder) but easy enough once I got stuck in and as you can see from the above picture the meter has two new bright lamps shining once again.

I have enjoyed using my regular Satellite radio The FT-847 on the HF bands but I have been missing my old mate the FT-767. Now that I have re-illuminated the good old fashioned mechanical meter, I am looking forward to many more hours of HF fun with the old beast.

Is This Frequency In Use?

The past few days has brought interesting conditions to most of the HF bands. I spent some time checking up and down the bands to find:
50Mhz - SSB Open
29Mhz - FM Open
28Mhz - SSB Open
24MHz - SSB Open
21MHz - SSB Open
18MHz - SSB Open
14MHz - SSB Open
Its great to hear plenty of radio activity coming in on the higher portion of the HF bands, its been a while since I struggled to find a clear and empty frequency.

Happy DXing have a great weekend!

Live feed from the shack

Over the weekend I was tuning around the HF bands from my shack when I came across quite a few special event stations. I decided to have a go at streaming the received signals live from my shack via the internet using Ustream.

I started off with the odd viewer and once I announced my live stream feed on Twitter it wasn’t long before I had a reasonable audience (47 in total). I began streaming the live signals I was receiving on the HF bands which turned out well and allowed other operators to compare my received signals to the signals that they were receiving at their locations.

I was pleased to hear that many signals were coming in on my amateur radio equipment very well compared to the sigs received at the viewers end as I was quickly informed by one of Ustream live feed viewers.

I was then asked by Twitter pal and software designer Scott “Satscape” Hather to stream some live Satellite operations via Ustream demonstrating how to make qso with amateur satellites. This worked out very well as I made qso via AO-51, SO-50, VO-52 and HO-68 whilst streaming live over Ustream.

I had another go last night and caught HO-68 via my web cam whilst streaming live.
Here is the video of myself making qso with many stations from Europe through to Greenland via last nights HO-68 pass.

Watch out for more Youtube videos and live video stream via Ustream.

Mobile DX

This morning was excellent propagation whilst driving to work in my Toyota 4X4. There were many VK's coming through very strong with 5/9+ signals all over the 20m band.
At around 7.15utc I heard Ian VK3MO calling CQ around 14.178MHz, Ian was 5/9+30db in signal strength. I managed to get back to Melbourne and work Ian for 10 minutes as I drove to work giving him a 5/9 signal back from my FT-100 and Maldol HFC-20 mono band antenna.

I love the early morning openings and I am always amazed how well the mobile set up always seems to perform.

NOAA-19 Over N.W Europe

With Iceland's Volcano Eyjafjallajökull causing so much controversy, I decided to track NOOA -19's latest pass with the help from Satscape.

I wanted to see if I could spot the Volcanic ash that everyone is hearing about for myself.

The equipment I used today was my good old Yaesu FT-2600M and a 137MHz vertical whip. NOAA-19 transmits APT on FM at 137.100 MHz.

There are more NOOA Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite(POES) which transmit images of the Earth and are simple enough to receive and decode. I am still using Radiocom 5.2 to decode the WX images as seen below.

Image of UK captured by NOAA-19, Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite(POES) received at my Amateur Station at 12.38 utc today.

Back From A Long Walk

Dudley says "Sorry I have been absent, I've been playing"
The past couple of weeks I have been enjoying Easter break from the College where I work, it has been a fantastic holiday but unfortunately all good things must come to an end, as I will be working again next week.

Despite my lack of posts here, I have been fairly active on the bands making lots of impressive DX both from the mobile and QTH.

Conditions at times have been very interesting as well as totally flat because of the solar activity. One of the days when the propagation peaked, I was fortunate to be driving back from the East Coast when I made QSO with 9M6TMT - Tom, and HS0ZIN - Paul, both booming in 5/9+ signals.

I shall be back to my usual blogging over the next few days as I adjust back to normality but in the meantime have a great weekend and hope to hear you on the bands.

HF Backpacking

Since I tested my latest project the miracle antenna mount, I decided to make another type of portable mount only this time I wanted something to house a mobile whip. I came up with a four legged stand which I made from 6mm thick aluminium as seen in the picture.


Once I cut the aluminium, I was able to bend the four legs into the required shape fairly easily using a fly press. I then began to assemble the mobile antenna mount that would allow my vast collection of mobile HF antenna’s to be mounted securely as well as gaining a good RF ground through the mount.

The next stage was to add wire radials directly to the aluminum which can be spread out into an X configuration.


Once I completed the build I packed the gear into my rucksack and headed outside to climb the Moor top. After around 20 minutes of doggy walking, I found a bell pit where I quickly set up and I tried 20m and 15m out with some interesting results.

Louise – M3TLL and or furry companion Dudley were kind enough to once again catch my crazy antics on film during our walkabout.

Here is the latest video from the windy Moor tops

Special Thanks goes to all Stations in the video.

My DX View

I could not resist sharing tonight’s fantastic Sunset view looking out from our Hill Top Shack which was taken earlier this evening by my YL, Louise – M3TLL.

The winter WX is finally coming to an end up here on the Moor and band conditions on HF have been very interesting lately with a lot more reliable & good dx openings into VK & ZL occurring most mornings.

I worked VK6ANC on 20M from my mobile last week 5/9 in the clear at around 8.15utc, using the FT-100 and Maldol HF-20 Mono band antenna.

Evening DXing has been spent down on 40M most nights with plenty of QSOs into North America and the odd Caribbean station.

20M has also been good in the evening especially over the weekend during the US contest, It was nice to see the higher end of the HF bands also up on signal with lots of contester's booming in on 15M.

I had a bit of fun working lots of big signals from across the pond down on my favorite band for DX, 20M.

Antenna Comparisons.

Both the 80M & 20M Delta Loop antennas have been working great for me, I have had much more time to compare the antennas against my vertical the Hustler 6BTV.

The results show the Loop antennas clearly perform the best 80M -17M and the Hustler Vertical performs best from 15M to 10M. It sure is handy having antenna switches in line!

Hustler Mono Band HF Mobile Antenna System

I recently acquired a set of mono band Hustler mobile antennas covering 80M, 40M, 20M, 17M and 15M.Over the weekend I got the opportunity to try the 40M Hustler antenna whilst parked up at 1175 feet on top of neighboring ILKLEY Moor. The antenna was pulling in some big signals and putting out a rather nice footprint as I worked a handful of Irish Stations as well as a couple of Europeans.I made a quick video of the new Hustler mobile antenna in action on 40M with the help of camera Woman Louise – M3TLL (My lovely YL).
The latest Video can be seen below.

I am looking forward to testing the rest of the Hustler Mono Banders as soon as possible! Thanks for the visit, 73.

Home Made Tripod Test With Miracle Antenna & FT-817 - Video

Despite freezing those parts that don't like freezing off, I managed to try out the latest metal work project. Due to the cold I was in Test mode which was short and sweet as seen in the video.

Miracle/Wonder Ally Tripod

Since I got the FT-817 and Miracle antenna I have been pondering over a few ideas that I would like to try whilst out and about in the great outdoors.
One of the ideas was to make a light weight tripod type of mount, that would allow the Miracle antenna to be used with feeder rather than a direct chassis mount. I wanted something that I could mount inside my rucksack that would stick out of the top just enough to mount the antenna clear of my head and body. I also wanted something that could be placed on a wall, rock or flat spot quick and easy.

With this in mind I set about the task and came up with this.

I made the tripod with the intention of standing it on Trig Points that are located nearby on the Moor top at high spots and summits. The tripod also sits well on my shack desk where earlier I heard the ARRL DX News coming in 5/7 on 14.275MHz with the little Miracle antenna, set up as seen here.

Close Up of the aluminium cradle and tripod which has been riveted together using 4.8mm long reach rivets.

The new tripod mount is very light and easy to use, I made it from 2mm aluminium which I folded into shape. The three legs and cradle are joined together using rivets.
Total build time was less than 30 minutes.

I hope to get out over the coming weekend and work some QRP contacts using the new kit, with a bit of luck there may be a video showing the results.

NOAA 17 Weather Watching

Once again we awake to a fresh covering of Snow up here on the Yorkshire Moor top.
I thought It would be a good idea to take at look at the Weather(WX) for myself with the help of Earth Orbiting NOAA-17.

The NOAA-17 Satellite is in continuous orbit with an altitude at around 500 miles and produces excellent real time images of the Earth that can be received around 137.620 MHz APT (Automatic Picture Transmission) or 1707.00MHz HRPT (High Resolution Picture Transmission).

Earlier This Morning
Once the Satellite came into range (from the North) I was able to receive the signal using the FT-847 and IO-10EL Sat Antenna. The received signal was decoded with the computer using Radiocom 5.2(RC50) which can be seen in the image below.


Close Up Of The UK Covered With Snow Clouds
I've been decoding the NOAA Weather Satellites for over 5 years using the RC50 software with excellent results which can be found in my archive posts. The images allow you to make up your own mind up regarding what the WX will be doing, as data can be collected during each of the many NOAA Satellite passes.
Looking at his one, I think I will be wrapping up warm and reaching for my boots before stepping out. Stay warm!

New DXCC Tajikistan in the log

Whilst listening around 40M tonight, I managed to stumble across a nice pile up down on 7.157.6MHz. I was pleasantly surprised to hear EY8MM coming in 5/9 loud and clear. As expected EY8MM had lots of stations calling him in the pile up and with his excellent operating skills listening for specific regions one at a time, lots of Stations were worked.

I called into the pile up when appropriate, giving only the last three letters(Suffix) of my call sign - HTS. After about 10 minutes EY8MM pulled out "Tango Sierra" from the crowd and I was in like a flash working him with a 5/9 exchange both ways.

Tajikistan is an all time new one for me which inspired me to share the news. At present I'm up to 149 DXCC so far, out of a possible 338 DXCC. Its always nice to catch a rare opportunity and add a new one like EY8MM - Tajikistan.

The equipment that I was running was: Heil Gold Line GM-5, Yaesu FT-767GX (50W), into a Vertical (Hustler 6BTV).

Top Performance from the Home Brew 80M Delta Loop

Since I erected my latest home made wire antenna which was the full wave 80m Delta Loop, I have spent quite a lot of time down on 40M & 80M experimenting with the new loops performance. The loop tunes up well from 160M through to 15M with the MFJ-969 ATU and is resonant for 80M at around 3.5 MHz. It is slightly on the long side for the band as I will be operating mainly on the phone portion higher up the band with some occasional psk31 down on 3.583 MHz.

The immediately obvious improvement that I noticed first, was the clean receive and clear sounding signals that I am now receiving across all of the HF bands. The Loop also provides minimal noise levels compared with the previous Dipole and G5RV antennas. Since the installation I have had a good couple weeks to give it some stick and the tests have been interesting as well as rewarding as I worked some DX Call signs whilst using the new Delta Loop.

The Loop antenna seems to put out a good signal which has been noted to have improved significantly on the previous dipole according to G3OFA, whom I have worked a few times recently on the #TWNET (Twitter Radio Net). So far on 40M, I have worked DX such as, N2QQF, W4NP as well as 6W/GM4FDM and on 80M, I also got across the pond with the loop working W3JK and K1NIU both on 3.795 MHz.

I have been working plenty of G-Stations as well as into Europe with good reports from 80M to 17M and also managed a local net on 160M, which was a first for me as I have never managed to tune up any antennas for top band before. I shall be continuing to experiment with the 80M Delta Loop and comparing it with the smaller 20M Delta loop and Hustler 6BTV. In the meantime have a great Weekend and many DX!